GOLF - When playing in Kabul. . .

When playing golf at Kabul, keep your
head down and aim left of howitzers
(Filed: 11/01/2002)

A round on an Afghan course is beset with lethal
hazards and immoveable obstructions, as Peter
Foster found

FOR 20 years Afghanistan has been too busy fighting to
pursue the idle pleasures of the West, but propped up in
the corner of a Kabul sports shop sat an intriguing
reminder of happier times.

The golf bag needed a good clean, but the clubs inside - a
full set of Ben Sayer irons and woods complete with
headcovers - were still serviceable.

The shopkeeper said they were the property of a
Pakistani professional named "Tarzee".

We agreed to hire the clubs and purchased a dozen
Dunlop 65 balls, still individually wrapped in the black
crinkly paper they had left the factory in more than 20
years ago.

In the Kabul bazaar, a craftsman whittled up a flagstick
which he dressed with a pennant of red silk, the number
six painted in Roman and Arabic numerals. All that was
needed now was a golf course.

A passing mention in a 1972 guide book to Kabul provided
the clue. It spoke of a boating complex built at Qargha,
set in the barren hills north-west of the city.

"The new Golf Club is located at the end of the dam just
above the new Golf Course which spreads over the hollow
at the foot of the dam," wrote the author.

Thirty years on, the fairways of the nine-hole Qargha
Lake Golf Club are grassless but still recognisable, the
bunkers indistinguishable from shell craters and the
"greens" turned to flat, grey dust bowls by five years of
drought.

In the absence of local competition, The Telegraph teed
up and struck the first ball since the days when regular
medal competitions were held every Friday for
expatriates in Kabul.

Without a scorecard for reference, the first hole was
estimated to be a 350 yard Par 4 that dog-legged round
five 75mm Russian howitzers which one of Afghanistan's
many passing armies had carelessly left on the fairway.

Just as the players were considering whether discarded
artillery pieces constituted an "immoveable obstruction"
under rule 24-2, a passing local man warned "keep your
head down".

The speaker introduced himself as Abdul Qayum, who as
a young man in the 1970s had worked at Qargha Lake,
teaching Afghanis how to play and caddying for the better
players in competitions.

His claims, which had initially appeared too good to be
true, were given credence when he demonstrated a neat
interlocking grip and a swing that was elegant, if a little
rusty.

He recalled some of the great local players in the days
when Nicklaus and Player were vying for supremacy on
the international scene. He said that a Murray Poole, a
British engineer, was the best of them all. More recently
the Qargha Lake course was the scene of battles between
the Pathan forces of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and the Hazara
commander Abdul Ali Mazari, now dead.

Reminiscences over, Mr Qayum's first shot was a
disappointing shank which scuttled into a dusty hole that
had once been a water hazard. However, his second shot
was a clean strike that sailed towards the "green" where
the caddy had planted our flag.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph was still in need of an
adjudication on the "howitzer question". A local soldier
who doubled as a caddy and landmine awareness
instructor said he reckoned the guns were too heavy to
move.

After much further discussion, it was decided that only a
satellite telephone call to the Royal & Ancient in St
Andrews would settle the matter. Grant Moir, the assistant
rules secretary at the R&A, graciously agreed to
adjudicate.

He said the howitzers would be deemed "moveable" under
rule 24-1 if they could be moved without "unreasonable
effort" and without damaging the course - like a
greenkeeper's cart.

We heaved on the gun carriage. It would not budge. The
effort definitely seemed "unreasonable" and the course
was beyond damage anyway. The ball was dropped a
club's length away, not nearer the hole.

Before Mr Moir returned to his desk, he was asked to
make a judgment about landmines, an ever-present
danger in Afghanistan. Must the ball be played from
where it lies? He said this dilemma was already covered
by the R&A's Decisions on the Rules of Golf, with
particular reference to Section 1, paragraph 4/10.

"If a ball comes to rest in a situation dangerous to the
player, for example a rattlesnake or bees nest, in equity
a player can, without penalty, drop at the nearest point
which is not dangerous," he said.

Having reached the "green", Mr Qayum stayed and
described the lay out of the old course, chatting further
about the days when the fairways were carpets of green.

"I am very, very happy," he said. "Perhaps one day you
will come back and re-build our course."

With mines littering the area, we called it a day. Since
putting had been impossible, we shook hands on a
gentleman's half.